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Barbara Walters announced Monday on The View that she would be undergoing heart surgery later this week. Walters will be having a faulty heart valve replaced. The View host said she will be taking time off from the show to recover and expects to return in September.

Barbara Walters (Photo: Rubenstein - Wikimedia Commons)

“I have known of this condition for a while now and my doctors and I have decided that this is the best time to do the surgery,” Barbara Walters said on The View Monday.

ABC News president David Westin told network staff in an e-mail that although Walters would be having “serious surgery,” her condition is “not urgent; she is feeling great.”

“The recovery process can be anywhere from a month to three months,” Walters said. “I expect to be calling in from time to time… I love you all, and that’s my hot topic of the morning.”